A San Fernando Superior Court judge handed a Newhall gang member convicted of a pair of shootings — one that involved an infant and another that targeted a Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s deputy — multiple life sentences plus 132 years in prison, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Monolito Guerra, 35, who’s been in L.A. County jail since his arrest following the shooting that left him wheelchair-bound, was a fugitive felon hiding in the back seat of a car in November 2017.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Eric Siddall, who confirmed the sentence in a message sent via Twitter.
Then-Deputy Albert White was part of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station’s response to the report of an armed carjacking at an apartment complex off Bottletree Lane at the time.
When he noticed Guerra’s head hiding behind a windshield shade in the back seat of a car as he and fellow deputies canvassed the parking lot where the carjacking was reported, he identified himself and then ordered Guerra to slowly get out of the car.
Instead, according to court testimony, Guerra lunged at White while firing a bullet that struck White in the neck.
Guerra was struck multiple times by the officers who responded. An independent investigation from the L.A. County District Attorney’s office released in 2019 reported that the deputies who fired were justified in their actions.
White ultimately made a full recovery and was working as a detective at the Altadena Sheriff’s Station as of the start of Guerra’s trial in May. He has declined previous requests for comment.
The jury also found that, four days prior to shooting White, Guerra was involved in a road-rage altercation in the San Fernando Valley that resulted in him firing a gun at a car with four people in it. Ballistic evidence presented in court showed that one of the bullets Guerra fired struck a children’s car seat inches from where an infant was sitting.
Prior to the 2017 shooting, Guerra was sentenced to state prison Feb. 2, 2016, to terms of four years, five years and eight months, to be served concurrently, for a pair of felony evading arrest and assault with a deadly weapon convictions, respectively, according to Sheriff’s Department officials.
Guerra served about 20 months before being paroled on Oct. 19, 2017. He’s been in custody since Nov. 29 of that year. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not yet have any information on Guerra’s status in custody.
